Chapter 138 Besieged on All Sides

If *Transfermarkt* hadn't exposed Zhou Yi's situation, then Robert Lewandowski would undoubtedly have been Dortmund's biggest headache this summer.

But after the media dug up Zhou Yi's story, Lewandowski suddenly became less important.

Borussia Dortmund had to deal with Zhou Yi's agent, Schulze, with all their might.

The previous two contract renewal negotiations made Watzke very clear that although Schulze looked young, he was definitely not easy to deal with. He had never seen such an agent—so loyal to his player, just like a dog. He was Zhou Yi's loyal dog, doing whatever Zhou Yi said without any discount. It was useless to try to persuade him with emotions or reason. He only cared about and protected Zhou Yi's interests.

Such agents were indeed very rare. Other agents would more or less have their own little calculations, but Schulze seemed to never consider himself at all.

Of course, maybe he understood that considering Zhou Yi was considering himself…

Although both parties wanted to renew the contract, it didn't mean they would reach an agreement. After all, Lewandowski and the club had also wanted to renew their contracts…

Now, the most troublesome thing wasn't the annual salary or anything like that. Zhou Yi wasn't very greedy when it came to salary. He didn't say that just because he was the most important player in the team, he had to get the highest salary in the whole team.

The main problem was concentrated on the release clause.

Ever since Götze was forcibly poached by Bayern Munich using the release clause, Borussia Dortmund had hoped to cancel the release clauses in the contracts of their main players.

Zhou Yi, as the core of the team, was of course even more so.

For such players, the release clause was like a bomb that could be detonated at any time. As long as it existed in the contract for a day, Watzke would have a hard time sleeping well for a day.

Therefore, the club's main task this time was to persuade Zhou Yi and his agent, Schulze, to agree to remove the release clause from the new contract.

But Schulze, or rather Zhou Yi, wouldn't budge on this matter and his attitude was very firm.

And the club's attitude in this regard was also very firm.

The two sides were at loggerheads.

The club insisted on canceling the release clause, while Schulze insisted on having a release clause.

The club also directly approached Zhou Yi privately, hoping that Zhou Yi could consider the conditions offered by the club. To show their sincerity, they were willing to greatly increase Zhou Yi's salary, making Zhou Yi the club's highest earner.

Faced with the pressure from the club, Zhou Yi played a very smooth game of Tai Chi—he said that he had feelings for Borussia Dortmund and that he hoped to continue staying at Borussia Dortmund. This, of course, made Borussia Dortmund feel very comfortable. But then, Zhou Yi wasn't willing to talk more, saying that the contract issues of the contract renewal negotiations should still be left to his agent. He was a player and didn't understand so much, he just wanted to play football, so it was better to go to Schulze than to him.

The club wasn't stupid either. As soon as they heard it, they knew what Zhou Yi meant—he would never give up the release clause.

In fact, everyone could see that Zhou Yi couldn't stay at Borussia Dortmund for the rest of his life, and Borussia Dortmund didn't want to tie Zhou Yi down forever. They just hoped to earn as much transfer fee as possible when Zhou Yi transferred in the future.

Without a release clause, Borussia Dortmund could ask for whatever price they wanted. The initiative of whether a player transferred or not was entirely in the hands of Borussia Dortmund. They could sell if they wanted to sell, and they could not sell if they didn't want to sell.

If Götze hadn't had that damn release clause in his contract, how could Bayern Munich have bypassed Borussia Dortmund and talked directly to Götze's agent?

The last sentence of that article on *Transfermarkt* made a lot of sense: "Will Zhou Yi become the next Götze?"

This was exactly what the Borussia Dortmund club executives were most worried and afraid of.

And Zhou Yi insisted on having a release clause in order to avoid a situation where his fate was completely controlled by the club. Now his relationship with the club was still okay, but who knew what would happen in the future? In football clubs, the situation of "a new emperor brings a new court" was very common. When Klopp was coaching the team, he was naturally important. What if Klopp didn't coach the team one day? What if the new coach liked to play long passes? Then his tactical position in the team would be greatly reduced. At that time, let alone being the core, he might not even be able to guarantee the starting lineup.

If he had a release clause in his contract, he could naturally have other teams pay the release fee to buy him if he wasn't happy at Borussia Dortmund.

If there was no such clause, then no matter how unhappy he was, he could only endure it with his nose pinched.

Zhou Yi really didn't like the feeling of the situation not being in his control.

The release clause was his bottom line and he couldn't back down even half a step.

Even if he went to other clubs in the future, he would have to have such a clause in his contract, whether he could use it or not, it had to be there.

※※※

Just when Borussia Dortmund and Schulze were having difficult contract renewal negotiations, the English media suddenly reported that Arsenal had officially offered Borussia Dortmund 50 million euros to buy Zhou Yi.

And this news was confirmed by Arsenal's official statement: "... Our reporter consulted sources inside the club who said that they did indeed make an offer for Zhou Yi..."

A day later, Borussia Dortmund also confirmed the news. Borussia Dortmund was a listed club, and they had to announce any news that would cause changes in the stock price as soon as possible. Obviously, Zhou Yi's staying or leaving had a great impact on Borussia Dortmund's stock price.

If Zhou Yi and Borussia Dortmund had only one year left on their contract, then Arsenal's offer would have had nothing to do with Borussia Dortmund. They could only stand aside and watch Zhou Yi's agent and Arsenal discuss personal contracts and then transfer away.

Because the amount of the release clause in Zhou Yi's current contract with the club was 50 million euros.

Fortunately, Zhou Yi's release clause could only take effect in the last year.

But wouldn't it be better if there was no such clause at all?

Arsenal's offer made the Borussia Dortmund club executives more determined that they must not leave any similar time bombs in the new contract.

While they rejected Arsenal's 50 million euro offer without hesitation, they continued to haggle over the contract with Schulze.

"I assure the Borussia Dortmund fans that we will never sell Zhou Yi under any circumstances. He is 100% not for sale, he is priceless." Watzke said in an interview.

But Arsenal wasn't so easily frightened by such words. Everyone said such words a lot in ordinary times, such as "So-and-so is not for sale," but in the end, didn't they still sell them?

Arsenal believed that Borussia Dortmund said this because they thought 50 million euros was too little, so they soon made a second offer, this time 5.5 million euros more than the last time, 55 million euros!

Arsenal's offer must have also stimulated other clubs.

Almost at the same time, Barcelona's 60 million euro offer was also sent to Watzke's desk.

Manchester City also sent a 60 million euro offer.

Even Paris Saint-Germain came to join in the fun. Regardless of whether Zhou Yi could see them, they wouldn't easily admit defeat if they had more money than others.

In addition, Watzke also saw Bayern Munich's name on the offer list!

"What exactly does that idiot, Hoeness, want to do!" Watzke roared.

Sporting director Zorc, who was sitting next to him, shrugged: "I'm afraid he's here to make trouble and then watch us make a fool of ourselves."

"Damn it…" Watzke put his hands into his hair and grabbed it hard.

Recent events had really made him distraught.

In addition to Zhou Yi and Lewandowski, Hummels, Subotic, and Gündoğan were also being tempted by other teams.

For example, Gündoğan was receiving a lot of attention from Real Madrid. After the Champions League semi-final last season, Real Madrid noticed that Gündoğan's contract with Borussia Dortmund would expire in the summer of 2015, which was only two years away.

Compared to Borussia Dortmund, Real Madrid was huge in terms of reputation and size. If they wanted to poach Gündoğan, let alone Gündoğan, Borussia Dortmund probably couldn't resist it either. How did they poach Sahin back then?

So, in fact, Borussia Dortmund needed to renew contracts with more than just Lewandowski and Zhou Yi.

Negotiating contract renewals with so many players at the same time had almost made Watzke neurasthenic.